Abah Joshua
The pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has cautioned Igbo youths against the campaign of calumny, inciting violence, and provocative threats from Igbo groups and supporters of a presidential candidate against the APC Presidential candidate, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
A press statement by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Secretary-General Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide made available to journalists in Abakaliki, appealed to Igbo up youths to shun violence and not to take laws into their hands.
According to him, Igbo youths had been short changed to at the receiving end of all Federal Government programmes and policies, however appealed they should embrace peace during 2023 general elections.
“Ndigbo has an unrestricted culture of accommodation and warm receptions for neighboring states and visitors from far and wide, as travelers, we welcome our visitors with open arms and politics will never change our ways of reasoning and reflections.
“Ndigbo appeals to the southeast youths and supporters of presidential candidates to eschew violence and shun attempts to take laws into their own hands by issuing empty threats or using health issues as an instrument of blackmail in the presidential campaigns against anyone
“We are speaking on the background of threats of commotion and violence issued against Sen Bola Tinubu. We are aware of the fact that Igbo youths have been shortchanged by the way Federal Government has empowered youths from other zones excluding the southeast youths.
“It is an open secret that southeast has been at the receiving end of Federal Government’s policies and programs since 2015, and we appeal for a truce and allow peace to reign.
“2023 campaigns should be Issues- based not on blackmail and trivial matters. Ndigbo are open to receiving all presidential candidates for 2023. We will receive all of them unrestricted, and interface with them and take decisions before the elections.
“We will weigh all options in the eyes of being sidelined for 7 years by the Federal Government. Presidential candidates should not be parochial with any zone or ignore any region during their campaigns”, he concluded.
